NATIONAL ‘93

A certain editor was mumbling something about a lack of articles/reports for the mag and knowing how I used to nag people to write when I had the job – I’m putting pen to paper.

It took forever to get there due to a traffic accident on one of the motorways causing long jams on a second one. I did see one Rangy and a caravan who wouldn’t be attending the National as his speed had caused him to roll the Rangy on to the central crash barriers!

The site looked impressive spread out along the side of a hill but chaos lurked as those booking with friends in the same envelope found themselves separated as the computer had sited everyone alphabetically.

It was strange to dump the trailer and then to drive on to the site to be greeted by a member of Southern ROC who I usually end up with in a RTV group.

The 80 passed scrutineering with only the handbrake to tighten up and then it was away with the RTV on the Saturday.  At this point I will say that the motor was as sick as it could be and still keep going!  Lots of reasons were put forward by lots of people as to why it coughed and spluttered so much but the end explanation is the engine proved a valve only half existed.  This meant between every section the No. 3 plug was taken out, cleaned, the engine fired to blow out the oil and back in again – all to be done on the start line!  The marshals and other competitors were very patient with me – my thanks to them all.  As a consequence of this my mind was so full of motor that I didn’t have the usual jitters I get when trialling – needless to say this did not help the performance but then again the conditions were not the best with the slippery surfaces.  My memory recalls long sections looking round and giving drivers and navigators plenty of exercise.

In the bar that night, after I’d been rescruted for the CCV (still going cough and splutter) and being told I’d have to be re-scrutineered if I let my tyres pressures down after I’d got through (did that on the spot by guesswork!)  I was horrified at the prices – many people lugged bags of beer cans there, so I don’t think the beer concession made a lot.  Prize giving for the RTV and winch recovery wasn’t easy to hear so I gave up and concentrated on the gin (I later bumped into Heath Smith chuntering on “whose got my trophy for winching?”  well done Heath).

The evening saw the rain and “Please don’t drive round the site”, endlessly it seemed, coming over the tannoy.  The site had been damp to start with and the rain just put the finishing touches to making the CCV to me an endless sea of mud to be negotiated.

The first section gave an indication of how the rest of the day was going to be.  The first motor away went well past the 12 to the 5 gate and then there was a gully to dip into, round a tree and back down into the gully to the one gate.  Well he got round the tree and past the 2 gate and nose-dived into the gully.  40 minutes later, thanks to Pennine marshals Glen McKeith and Bill Leacock overcoming the difficulties of other marshals’ ideas of recovery – brute pulling on a couple of ropes saw a clear course.  The rest of the group who got that far saw spectators clapping when they teetered on to the edge getting a one or nothing if they went for it and failed.

The rest of the sections were long, muddy and predictable in that I knew where I was going to come a halt.  I was grateful to Glen for persuading me to keep going even when the starter motor packed in and I needed lots of pull starts.  The mud recoveries take longer than they should and so it was a long day.

I was second on the line at the last section and after 3 motors pulled me out  I didn't wait for the group and went and put my front hubs through and then straight back to the camp site.  This meant I had cooked and eaten by the time the rest came back.  I was then ‘adopted’ as a Yorkshire lady to make up the numbers of the tug of war team which eventually came second.

The comp was a slippery one and I must admit I didn’t see it so I can only rely on others who said the trees did not jump out there just as they do at Tong.  The journey home was a fast one as I left early in an attempt to beat the bank holiday traffic and did!

Looking back the overwhelming memory was mud, rain and not as I’d hoped from the Eastnor site – I’d always wanted to go there and as a result I’m left feeling a little sad but cannot reflect on the Midland who did their best in trying circumstances.

I hope that the ’94 National for Pennine members will give us some silverware to bring home and a few more entries being accepted to enable us to do that.  The good news is that it’s down the M1 in the Chatsworth area of Derbyshire I believe.

SARAH.

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